The present invention relates to generating a vector-based representation of a lens flare.
A lens flare is an optical effect simulating a reflection of a bright light source within a lens or other optical system. Lens flares occur naturally; for example, when viewing a bright light source through a camera, the reflection of light against the curved surface of the camera lens produces a lens flare. When a picture is taken under such circumstances, the lens flare can be captured on the camera's film.
In general, a lens flare is characterized by a halo, one or more rings and/or one or more rays. The halo is a bright glow of light surrounding a central point, which represents the light source and is the brightest spot of the flare. Flare rings are random-sized duplicates of the halo and represent the reflection of the light source on a lens surface. The rings typically move in a single direction away from the light source. Flare rays are spikes of light emanating from the center of the flare.
In image-processing applications, lens flare effects are conventionally created with pixel-based tools that create a bitmap of the entire image, including the portion representing the flare. However, such pixel-based representations typically cannot be resized or edited; any modification to the flare (e.g. adding rays) generally requires the removal of the original bitmap and its replacement with an entirely new bitmap representing a new image including the modified flare.